If you find any old news regarding what natural remedies were used during the old SARS outbreak, feel free to post it as it might be worth noting for MERS.

Turnips
Touted as SARS Cure in Beijing

BEIJING (Reuters) -
A turnip a day keeps the SARS virus away, or so many in China's
capital believe.

Turnip prices have jumped in Beijing
after the vegetable was touted as a key ingredient in a potion
to fight the deadly virus that causes severe acute respiratory
syndrome, or SARS, peddlers said.

Carrots, leeks, garlic and ginger
have leapt in popularity, too, after the popular Star Daily tabloid
published a recipe for fighting SARS last week that included those
ingredients along with turnips.

"A lot of people want turnips,"
said vegetable vendor Hu Benqiang, adding that he expected prices
to keep rising.

Long, white turnips are already
selling for three yuan per kilogram (kg) at one neighborhood market,
up from 2.40 yuan (10 pence) per kg last week, said Hu. Wholesale
prices have shot up more than 30 percent.

Chinese citizens have been trying
antibiotics, cold medicines and home remedies such as boiling
vinegar and eating whole cloves of raw garlic to fight SARS. One
official health newspaper recommended dead silkworms and cicada
skins as part of another recipe.

Health experts say there is no
known cure for SARS, which has infected more than 3,300 people
and killed at least 144 -- nearly half of them in China -- since
it emerged in China's southern province of Guangdong in November.

New Research On Black Elderberries Shows Activity Against Flu Viruses And Respiratory Tract Bacteria

Historically, black elderberries were among the most regarded folk remedies for coughs, colds, and flu.
Now modern science has authenticated these therapeutic properties. In
February 2011, researchers at Justus-Liebig University in Geissen,
Germany reported that a concentrated liquid extract of black
elderberries (Sambucus nigra L.), commercially available as Rubini® -
Elderberry Extract 3.2%, inhibited the growth of influenza
A and B viruses and bacteria associated with upper respiratory tract
infections. Artemis International, Inc.- the nation's experts in dark
berry ingredients - has been actively supplying the U.S. with this
elderberry extract for the past 16 years for its immune health benefits.

Antibacterial activity of the extract was demonstrated in
liquid-cultured strains of pathogenic bacteria often found in
association with upper respiratory tract infections. Depending on the
concentration, the extract inhibited their growth by 70% to over 99%.

Studies on the antiviral activity of the extract were conducted
and results showed that a low concentration of extract that would be
safe to normal cells, significantly inhibited the growth of a highly
contagious avian type A influenza virus and slower mutating type B
influenza virus. Further tests showed cells pre-exposed to the extract
had diminished levels of virus production of about 30% and 25% for type A
and B influenza virus, respectively. These results suggest that the
extract inhibits cell factors which allow the viruses to propagate.

Researchers commented that "Rubini elderberry extract is active
against human pathogenic bacteria as well as influenza viruses. In
addition, bacterial super-infection during ongoing influenza virus
infections complicates the situation for the patient. It would therefore
be useful to simultaneously target both. The activities shown by the
elderberry extract suggest that alternative approaches to influenza
infections might be provided by natural products."

Results of the collaborative efforts of researchers at the
Institute for Medical Virology and the Institute for Medical
Microbiology at Justus-Liebig University in Geissen, Germany were
published February 25th, 2011 in the journal, BMC Complementary and
Alternative Medicine.

In 1644, one of the first books devoted to the medicinal uses of black elderberry, Anatomia Sambuci, was published in Latin by German-born physician, Martin Blochwich. An English translation was published in 2010 as The Anatomy of the Elder.

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